THE TUESDAY CORRESPONDENT

RAP BOY RAP !!!!

In 1982, I bought my weekly fix of music news,the NME, where, in the days before the internet, is where everyone got their music information.

The New Musical Express music weekly has been around since 1952 and at its peak would sell 300,000 copies per week.The mid70's would have been when I started buying the NME; it was around the start of the punk explosion. The writers of the day were the likes of Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill, Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent.

Thursday was the afternoon when I'd walk a mile and a half into St Andrews town centre and head straight to John Menzies to pick up my weekly fix.

The week that sticks in my mind was in May 1982 as there was a free cassette available, by collecting a coupon, called Jive Wire. The coupon was duly filled in and sent away with the required amount for postage. (free in those days didnt really mean free)

Nowadays, it feels like you have barely put your order in online and there's a knock at he door with your delivery from Amazon arriving.Back then I'm sure it took 14 days to arrive.

The cassette had the wonderful slogan:

And remember. For the news, that moves at the speed of sound--NME. The paper that put its music where its mouth is.

The freebie was dedicated to Hoagy Carmichael, Thelonious Monk and Sam Lightnin' Hopkin, giants of American music that had died during the previous year. Carmichael was a composer, pianist, singer and actor, who famously wrote Georgia On My Mind, Monk founded bebop music and was a jazz pianist while Hopkins was a famous blues singer songwriter.

The cassette's opening track was a dub version of The Thompson Twins single In The Name Of Love. The track in its original form was released as a single in the UK but it never charted, while in the US it became a hit in the dance chart reaching No.1. Some time later, I used the dub version to make my own remix version of ˜Love On Your Side. In the lyrics of that single, there a verses that goes: ˜I played all my favourite records' and then it played the melody of' In The Name Of Love' and I used that part to add the dub version in the middle. Ah the fun!!!!

Next on the cassette was David Gamson with 'Turn On Red'. Now this was a style of music that was quite alien at the time to me, it even had a black dude rapping. This was before he started working with Green Gartside in Scritti Politti.It's a track that I tried to find for a number of years and happily, just recently a version became available on iTunes.

Leisure Process with 'Love Cascade' was third on the tape. Leisure Process was a duo consisting of Ross Middleton and Gary Barnacle. The track is a good piece of early 80's electro pop.

Middleton was a singer from Glasgow and was previously in a band called Positive Noise (JC can hopefully fill us in with details of Positive Noise - indeed I, and TVV reader scan as featured in this past post)

Gary Barnacle was a session saxophone player who played with as varied acts as The Clash, The Ruts and everything in between up to Sam Fox and Stock, Aitken and Waterman. In the eighties he was Kim Wilde's boyfriend.

The track was produced by Martin Rushent, who during that period was the hot producer after he produced The Human League's album ˜Dare' He also produced Altered Images 'Happy Birthday' that also features on the cassette.

Leisure Process only ever produced 4 singles before going their separate ways.

The other track that made a lasting impression on me was Gil Scott Heron's 'B Movie', it was something again, that I would never have listened to if it hadn't been available on the tape.

His style on this track, of almost poetry to a thumping backing track is very effective to put over his political message on the selection of the American President and the election process. It also informed me of a political system that I knew nothing about. It also turned out to be a very good prophecy of the future for the oil producing countries.

There was also a certain humour that was shown, with his use of Ronald Raygun.

To even up the political score on our side of the Atlantic, The Beat's 'Get A Job/Stand Down Margaret' also featured.

Coming from Birmingham and featuring a band line up that had black and white members, they played a mixture of ska, reggae and pop. This track saw them spearheading a movement wanting social change and multicultural inclusion.

In the eighties they were at the forefront of 'Rock Against Racism'

The full track listing for Jive Wire.

Side One

Thompson Twins- In The Name Of Love (3.45)
David Gamson- No Turn On Red (6.12)
Leisure Process - Love Cascade (6.19)
Buzzz - Tonight's Alright (3.31)
Pigbag- A Live Orangutango (6.04)
Aswad- Ghetto In The Sky (6.25)
Scritti Politti- Asylums In Jerusalem (3.10)
The Beat- Get A Job/Stand Down Margaret (7.02)
Gil Scott Heron - 'B'-Movie (5.19)

Side Two

Suicide- Dream Baby Dream (3.16)
Kraftwerk- Das Model (3.39)
Altered Images- Happy Birthday (3.15)
Theatre Of Hate- Dreams of Poppies (3.45)
The Gun Club- Ghost on The Highway (2.43)
Tav Falco's Panther Burns- Ms Froggy (2.30)
Black Uhuru- Happiness (4.30)
Defunkt- Illusions (7.00)
Rip Rig & Panic- Billy Eckstein's Shirt Collar (3.15)
Carmel- Storm (4.07)
Vic Godard & Subway Sect- Just In Time (2.35)
Pablo Lubadika Porthos- Madeleina (4.00)

Jive Wire was numbered NME 02, in October 1981 they had given away NME 01 named Dancin' Master.

Dancin' Master also contained some great tracks - Tom Browne- Funkin' For Jamaica; Junior- Mama Used To Say; The B-52's - Give Me Back My Man (instrumental); Teardrop Explodes- Traison (C'est Juste Une Histoire)

These cassettes were a great way of sampling different styles and bands that you wouldn't readily hear.

I stopped buying the NME many years ago but occasionally, when shopping in a supermarket I'll go over to the magazine/paper rack pick it up and have quick look through.

However, I've collected every copy of the Q music magazine since the first one was available, and have just received the 25th Anniversary copy and being a typical collector I have all the free CDs, supplements etc still intact with the magazines.

The other magazine I buy every month is the WORD magazine which comes with a free sample CD and like the Jive Wire tape all those years ago, gives me the chance to try out different styles and bands without having to purchase.

This post is dedicated to the memories of Martin Rushent and Gil Scott Heron

mp3 : David Gamson - No Turn On Red
mp3 : David Gamson - No Turn On Red (Fat Camp Version)
mp3 : Leisure Process - Love Cascade
mp3 : The Thompson Twins - In The Name Of Love (dub mix)
mp3 : The Thomspson Twins - No Talkin' (Love On Your Side)

Mr John Greer, 15 November 2011